At 12:20 PM 4/14/99 -0700, Joan Rapier wrote:
[snip]
>
>The camera will be used in a real estate business - taking pictures of
>properties to be uploaded onto a PC Compatible computer and used either
>on a web page or to be e-mailed.

I bought a Toshiba PDR-5 digital camera a few months ago, here are some of
there reason/benefits:

Likes:
Uses SmartMedia digital "film", about 1.5" x 2", thin. They come in sizes
from 2 meg to 16 meg, when one fills up, you can swap in another one
without any problems. They're maybe 1/16" inch thick, and come with little
plastic cases, so you carry lots of 'em without any problems.

Camera has a _built-in_ PC card adapter. You flip open the back and can
slide the camera _directly_ into a type II PC card slot, the things
emulates a hard drive, so you can view, copy & edit images as if they were
on a hard drive. Very cool, and _incredibly_ convenient so there are no
serial transfer cables to futz with (which is a royal PITA).

Built-in passive LCD display for viewing & framing shots. It doesn't have a
backlight which can make it tough to view sometimes, but not using a
backlight does extend battery life a lot.

Standard CR123 camera battery, available anywhere. Get'em in bulk, and
they're pretty cheap.

If you don't have a PC card slot (or adapter in your desktop PC), Toshiba
offers a 3.5" floppy adapter.

Has a Maco lens setting for closeups.

Dislikes:
Not megapixel - if you're looking for ultra-high res this isn't the camera
for you. The PDR-5 supports standard (low res), high-res, and black & white.

No tripod hole - dunno why.

If you go to Toshiba's web site, they're got a link to their digital
imaging section, or do a search on PDR-5.


Christopher Zguris

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